Nanoscale incipient asperity sliding and interface micro-slip assessed by the measurement of tangential contact stiffness

Experiments with a multidimensional nano-contact system have shown that, prior to kinetic frictional sliding, there is a significant reduction of the tangential contact stiffness relative to the elastic prediction. The reduction occurs at contact sizes below about 50–200 nm for aluminum single crystals and several other materials. Using a cohesive interface model, we find that this reduction corresponds to a transition from a small-scale-slip to large-scale-slip condition of the interface.